The black arches or nun moth (''Lymantria monacha'')Carter, David. Butterflies and Moths, Dorling Kindersley, pg 271 is a small

Palaearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

. It is considered a forest pest.

Description

The moths of ''Lymantria monacha'' have a wingspan of 40 to 50 mm. They have white forewings with black connected wavy arches which gives the moth its name. The light brown hindwings have white fringes having black spots. They also have a characteristic biscuit-coloured abdomen with a black band. Females are larger and have elongated wings. The eggs are oval, light brown or light red. Larvae are whitish grey to blackish, with grey hairs, red and blue warts, and a dark longitudinal dorsal line which is interrupted or broadened into spots in places. Pupa is golden glossy red-brown or dark brown, with reddish hairs dorsally and rather long anal point.

Technical description and variation

White forewing with black basal spots and four sharply angulate black transverse lines, the second of which is the broadest; hindwing greyish white and grey. Abdomen light rosepink. The species varies strongly and has received the following aberrational names, ''nigra'' Fr.: The two central bands are confluent at the costal and posterior margins, forming black spots, or the whole median area is dark, the red of the abdomen usually weaker, ''eremita'' G.: Forewing and abdomen smoke-brown or blackish grey, the former with black markings, ''atra'' Linst.: Forewing uniformly black, without markings, hindwing greyish brown, abdomen black, lutea Anel is a light form in which the central bands are interrupted; the red colour of the abdomen is equally deep almost to the thorax, ''flavoabdominalis'' Schultz has the abdomen yellow instead of red; ''subfusca'' Schultz female is distinguished by everything which is black in true ''monacha'' being yellowish brown, and the abdomen being also yellowish brown instead of red; in ''obsoleta'' Schultz the dark transverse bands in the median area of the forewing are absent, while they remain in the basal and outer-marginal areas. All these names were given to European specimens.

Range

This moth can be found in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, including

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

, and in temperate regions of the Palearctic East to Japan and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Life cycle

The larvae hibernate when young, remain together in batches and are fullgrown in June.

Food plants and pest significance

The larvae feed preferentially on spruce (''

Picea abies ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...

'') and pine (''

Pinus sylvestris ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and or ...

''). They also feed on silver fir (''

Abies alba ''Abies alba'', the European silver fir or silver fir, is a fir native to the mountains of Europe, from the Pyrenees north to Normandy, east to the Alps and the Carpathians, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and sou ...

''), European larch (''

Larix decidua ''Larix decidua'', the European larch, is a species of larch native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathian Mountains as well as the Pyrenees, with disjunct lowland populations in northern Poland and southern Lithuania. It ...

''), aspen (''

Populus tremula ''Populus tremula'' (commonly called aspen, common aspen, Eurasian aspen, European aspen, or quaking aspen) is a species of poplar native to cool temperate regions of Europe and Asia, from Iceland and the British IslesJames KilkellIrish native ...

''), hornbeam ('' Carpinus betulus''), European beech (''

Fagus sylvatica ''Fagus sylvatica'', the European beech or common beech is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae. Description ''Fagus sylvatica'' is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to tall and trunk diameter, though more ...

''), pedunculate oak (''

Quercus robur ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. It is widel ...

''), apple (''

Malus domestica An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

''), sycamore ('' Acer pseudoplatanus''), bilberry (''

Vaccinium myrtillus ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' or European blueberry is a holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortle ...

'') and bogberry (''

Vaccinium uliginosum ''Vaccinium uliginosum'' (bog bilberry, bog blueberry, northern bilberry or western blueberry) is a Eurasian and North American flowering plant in the genus ''Vaccinium'' within the heath family. Distribution ''Vaccinium uliginosum'' is native ...

''). In spring the larvae consume the first buds, then later the needles. A single caterpillar eats about 200 pine, or 1000 spruce needles and twice as many are damaged by biting off. Spruces die at 70 percent needle loss and pine at 90 percent. There is also a danger increased of secondary infections by

longhorn beetle The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...

s, bark beetles, fungi or other pathogens. Therefore, outbreaks can cause major damage in forestry.Bugwood Wiki
/ref>

Gallery

Lymantria monacha MHNT.CUT.2012.0.357 col de Crocheto Corse-du-Sud Female.jpg, ♀ Lymantria monacha MHNT.CUT.2012.0.357 col de Sarcoggio Corse-du-Sud Male.jpg, ♂ Moths of the British Isles Plate046.jpg, Illustration from The Moths of the British Isles Lymantriidae - Lymantria monacha.JPG, Caterpillar Pupa of Lymantria monacha (Lymantriinae) - Puppe der Nonne (14758288538).jpg, Pupa Feromon trap lymantria monacha 2 beentree.jpg, Pheromone trap for ''Lymantria monacha''

Notes

References

* Carter, David (1992) ''Butterflies and Moths''. Dorling Kindersley Handbooks, London. .

External links

Black arches on UKmothsLepiforum.deInvasive Species Compendium - ''Lymantria monacha''
CAB International
Species Profile - Nun Moth (''Lymantria monacha'')
National Invasive Species Information Center,

United States National Agricultural Library The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Located ...

{{Authority control Lymantria Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths of Japan Insect pests of temperate forests Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus